I wanted to do something to change the mood. “I’m sorry,” I said, and started rambling. “I didn’t know that Errol was going to be there, that is, until Janine said he came over at that time every night.” I stopped to think about it. “But then she said it was to check on her, so there’s no telling if he was doing that the night Connie died too. Though Errol was with his sister that night. Mason and I saw them at a restaurant.” Barry was listening but not reacting. I decided to try giving him my latest tidbit to see if it would smooth things over.
“I do have something you might find useful.” He sat up and turned to face me.
“Something else you’ve been withholding?” he said.
“Not really. I just found it out.” I told him about seeing the DVD of The Grass Is Always Greener at Marianne’s. “I asked her about it tonight, and she said she watched it because Rory Graham was in it. She claimed not to know about the boombox and the sprinklers and said she only watched the movie for a few minutes because it was boring.” I let it sink in and then continued. “She could have said that to cover up that she knew about—”
“The murder setup,” he said, finishing my sentence. “I don’t need your assistance in figuring that out. I’m a detective, remember?” He said it almost in a joking way, and I thought we were good.
“None of it really matters now. Despite what Heather thinks, there’s no real evidence to point to anyone else, so even with the issue of the gardeners denying they had anything to do with the radio, it seems like Connie Richards’ death is going to be ruled an accident. And then that will be it.” He looked at me intently. “Not that it matters to you. You’re off the case.” He got up to leave, and I walked him to the door.
“Says who?” I muttered to myself.
“I heard that,” he said as he left.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
“You better make it a black eye,” I said to Bob the next morning.
The barista gave me an appraising look. “Tough night, huh?”
I just nodded as an answer and took my coffee with two shots of espresso into Shedd & Royal.
Two men were coming in the door carrying a chair and some large folded pieces just as Mrs. Shedd caught up with me.
“The people from the Craftee Channel are getting things ready for the shoot.” She smiled at her casual use of the show business term. “We’re having them put the things in the back room for now.”
I went to check the storage room to see what she was talking about. The door was propped open, and I looked inside. Mr. Royal was busy moving things around. I saw that he’d pushed the box of defective yarn I needed to send back next to a cardboard box marked LOST AND FOUND. The colorful cutouts of the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus were leaning against the wall. Strings of old-fashioned big Christmas lights hung on a straight-backed chair.
“Those are all things for the show,” he said, pointing out some boxes and a chair with Rory’s name on it.
“It looks like you have it under control,” I said to Mr. Royal. I excused myself and was on my way to the yarn department when I heard my name.
Marianne and Janine were coming toward me. It was impossible to read Marianne’s mood, and after last night I wasn’t sure what to expect. I greeted them both and then waited to see what Marianne had to say.
“I’m sorry for the way my brother acted and for what he did,” she began. Her timing was always a little off, but this time she seemed more awkward than usual. “He feels he has to protect me, even from myself.” She swallowed a few times, and I was sure her mouth was dry. “But I’m still confused. Why were you investigating what happened to Connie? It was obviously a terrible accident.”
I was relieved to see Dinah had joined us, and she answered for me. “Molly has a natural talent for solving mysteries. You must not have heard what Rhoda said that time when your sister-in-law came—that Molly’s our local independent investigator. She was just trying to help.”
“Oh,” Marianne said. “Now I understand. I suppose Kelly must have told my brother about you and that’s why he did what he did.” Her expression didn’t change, but she let out her breath and I sensed she was more relaxed. “I hope we can have a do-over of last night. This time we’ll bring the cake.”
Dinah and I both agreed.
“What’s going on?” Janine asked, looking past me. She’d been hanging off to the side and must have felt it was okay to enter the conversation. I turned to see what she was talking about and realized I hadn’t noticed that some of the Craftee people were in the yarn department, practically right behind me. I recognized the arty-looking set designer, the director, and the producer.
“They’re here about the taping,” I said. “I better go.” Dinah took the cue and walked the pair away.
“Sorry to interrupt,” Michael said. “We were trying to figure out which cubby we need.” He gave the row of cubbies another glance. “I think the decision to take the middle one is correct.” He punctuated his comment with a decided nod. “We’re going to need it emptied out. Our yarn sponsor wants it filled with their brand.”
My job was just to empty it. The set designer would place the sponsor’s yarn in it and a banner over it. I assured him I’d take care of it and stood there while they looked around the area again. I was relieved when they left without making any more demands.
Mrs. Shedd must have been hanging nearby, because as soon as the three television types headed to the front, she found me. “Is everything all right?” she asked nervously.
I explained the cubby situation and assured her I’d handle it.
“What about the other problem?” She was staring as Adele and Rory went into the kids’ department.
“Maybe we should do a little spy work,” I said.
The two of us slipped up to the spot where the regular carpet in the bookstore changed into cows jumping over moons and peeked. Adele and Rory were seated at one of the low tables and were too intent on what they were doing to notice us. I nudged Mrs. Shedd and gave her a thumbs-up as I saw Rory had a hook in her hand and was crocheting. She’d completed only a few inches of whatever she was working on, but even from a distance I could see it looked good. My boss gave me a happy hug. I tried to give Adele the credit, but Mrs. Shedd smiled at me.
“I know it was you. You always come through.”
* * *
I had the cubby emptied and the yarn boxed and stored in the back room by the time I was ready to leave. There was no happy hour on Tuesdays, so Mason and I had planned on dinner together. I thought it was sweet the way he insisted on picking me up at the bookstore.
“It always makes me feel good to see you,” he said when I joined him at the front. He leaned toward me and gave me a hello kiss and helped me on with my jacket.
“Ditto,” I said. I felt like I could let out my breath when I was with Mason. It was just comfortable to be with him.
“Anything much happen today?” he asked, and I chuckled and said I’d tell him at dinner.
We decided to go to an Italian restaurant down the street. It had been in Tarzana for years and was an old standby of ours. The waiter knew us and offered us the table we liked by the window.
We didn’t need to look at the menus to order. Mason ordered chicken marsala, and I asked for spaghetti with oil, garlic, and vegetables. We would share a Caesar salad.
When the server left the table, Mason leaned on his hands. “Okay, now tell me everything.”
“I suppose I should start with the phone call,” I said. When I got to the part about the radio and toy in the trap, Mason started to look hurt.
“Why didn’t you say anything?” he asked. “I could have helped.”
“I’m sorry,” I said, genuinely surprised. “I thought you were so busy thinking about your work, and I didn’t want to bother you.”
“It’s never a bother. Some of our best times have been when I got involved in your sleuthing. I like that you’re always after the truth,” he said. “Did you find out who was
behind the threats?”
“I figured out the call at least had come from Marianne’s, and it wasn’t much of a stretch to think the other two things were connected.” Then I cut to the chase and told him how it had all ended up. “Her brother claimed he thought I was an intruder with a knife, and he called the cops. I was holding a knife to cut the cake I brought,” I hastily added.
Mason was starting to grin. “It sounds like a typical Molly moment. Then what happened?”
“I kind of lost it and started accusing Errol of making the phone call, and I alluded to the rest of it. He tried to deny it, but I rolled out my proof. Then Marianne stepped in and said he was just trying to protect her. She was shocked when she realized her brother thought she had killed Connie Richards.”
“And I suppose she denied it,” Mason said.
“Sort of. She pointed out his faulty thinking, but she never actually denied it.”
“What did the cops do?” Mason asked.
“They seemed to buy it.”
“And you think she didn’t do it?” Mason asked.
“I think her brother is a more likely candidate, but it doesn’t really matter. I heard Connie’s death is going to be ruled an accident and that will be the end of it.”
“Maybe it really was an accident. Weird things do happen. I heard about someone who died using their cell phone in the bathtub.” He looked at me intently when he finished. “Are you going to drop it?” he asked, and I shrugged noncommittedly as an answer.
Our food came, and he tried to get my mind on happier things. “I’m looking into arrangements for a trip up north. We just need to work out when.” He pulled out a handful of pages. “My assistant found these online about the place. I thought you might want to have a look.”
As an afterthought, he asked what cops had shown up at Marianne’s. When I mentioned Barry was one of them, he said, “That must have been awkward.”
“More than you know,” I said, and dug into my spaghetti. Since my undercover job with Barry was over, I probably could have told Mason about it. But my rule about such things was that if something was going to upset someone, it was better to leave them in the dark. I knew Mason did the same. He hadn’t said a word about his family event the other day.
“I guess my timing’s off,” Mason said. “It probably doesn’t matter anymore, but after all the talk about a movie you never saw, I got hold of The Grass Is Always Greener. I thought we could bring home some cannolis and watch it together.
“Your timing is fine. I’d still like to see the movie,” I said.
“And then maybe a dip in the whirlpool and, if you like, a sleepover.”
We left my car in the parking lot and took a box of the dessert pastries with us. Mason made us cappuccinos to go with the cannolis, and we sat on his couch. I asked to see the DVD box, but he explained he didn’t have the actual DVD but had gotten it through a TV service of his.
We finished the cannolis and cappuccinos but not the movie. It was boring, just as Marianne had said, and Rory’s performance would have been fine if it was supposed to be a comedy. Finally, Mason just fast-forwarded to the scene that had brought this all up. Of course, the setting was different from Marianne’s, but the idea was the same. In the movie, a boombox was left sitting on the grass in a spot where Rory as the heiress did yoga at dawn. The sprinklers came on when she was doing downward-facing dog. I was glad they didn’t show her getting sizzled. There was just a close-up on the boombox, a lot of crackling noises, and when they cut back to Rory, she was doing corpse pose.
“So what did you think?” Mason asked, after he fast-forwarded it to the end so I could see how it all turned out.
“I suppose somebody could have gotten the idea from it,” I said. Then I realized that, with all our fast-forwarding, I’d missed something. “Did they show how someone set it up?” I asked. Mason started going backward in the movie until there was a shot of the lawn with the boombox. Mason went back farther and then pressed play. A number of gardeners were working on the property, and then one of them separated from the rest of them. He took something out of a sack he was using to collect leaves. It became obvious it was the boombox, and there was a close-up on the white extension cord the man was carrying. While the other gardeners finished up and took their equipment to their truck, the man made some adjustment to the boombox and placed it on the ground. His final move was to plug the extension cord into an outlet in the garage. He opened the automated sprinkler box and changed the watering time to coincide with the heroine’s yoga time.
When he came outside, the other gardeners were gone, and he pulled off his hat and glanced up at an open window and said, “Au revoir, mon chéri.”
I watched mesmerized and then had Mason play that part again. “That’s the important part. How it was done,” I said. It had reinforced something I’d told Barry. I threw my arms around him. “You did help me!”
“I like where this is going,” he said, hugging me back. “Let’s forget about everything and take that dip in the whirlpool.”
The night air was chilly, but the swirling warm water was wonderful, and since there was no chance Barry was going to show up at my house looking for information, I accepted Mason’s offer of a sleepover.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
All things considered, it was probably best that I let the whole thing with Connie Richards go. Even if I found out something startling, what would I do with it? Would Barry even pick up my call?
I didn’t have time to think about it, anyway. We were three days away from the taping, and it was all I thought about. We had two more mini Make-and-Takes during our happy-hour gatherings. Rory refused to take part in them, saying that over-rehearsing would take away her spontaneity. She did, however, get on her soapbox about what it was like being left-handed in a right-handed world. “I’m going to be there for my lefties,” she said as the rest of us helped some drop-in people make bracelets. Then she announced that Adele was going to demonstrate how to make the bracelets for both right- and left-handed people.
Even CeeCee seemed impressed at the change in Rory, though she did promise she’d be keeping the Dance Breaks in. Adele had shown us some samples of Rory’s work on the sly, since after everything we’d all still been a little leery. The swatches and bracelets had looked fine, and we’d all let out a huge sigh of relief.
Rhoda brought in samples of the coffee cake recipe we were going to feature. She’d made sure to make them with the sponsor’s brand of flour. She was a little miffed that the production company was insisting on providing the cakes for the show. She was, however, going to get credit, and they were going to be called Rhoda’s Cake for a Break.
Once Marianne got past that rough spot with me, she seemed committed to the group. She had decided on her own that her job would be to hand out the kits to the Make-and-Takers and let the teaching and demos be done by the rest of the group. There seemed to be a constant battle between Marianne and Janine. Marianne would try to get her to go off to the side; then the companion would get a phone call I assumed was from Errol and she’d be back shadowing Marianne. Mrs. Shedd and Mr. Royal watched from the sidelines and seemed happy with the way things were going.
“Well, tomorrow’s the day,” I said to Dinah. After the second sample Make-and-Take, we’d gone to the café for a pick-me-up.
The first thing I did was ask how her situation at home was going. She put her head in her arms and then sat up again.
“That bad?” I said, and she nodded.
“You can’t make friends with someone who doesn’t want to make friends with you. Commander walked in on one of her yoga classes, and he finally understands why I was upset. I don’t know what’s going to happen.” She let out a sigh. “I’d rather talk about something else.” She stirred her drink. “Have you heard anything from Barry?” my friend asked, and I let out a laugh.
“And I’m not going to hear anything. Let’s see, he has so many reasons to be upset. I didn’t tell him about the
phone call, the radio, or the toy rat. And then I said the whole bit about Errol being the breather because I was getting too close, making it painfully obvious that I was doing exactly what he’d told me not to, investigating on my own. I can’t say I blame him. I’d do the same thing if I wasn’t me. It was fun while it lasted.”
“You’re just going to drop it.” Dinah watched as Marianne and Janine went past the café door and out the front door of the bookstore.
“For now, yes. I am not even letting myself think about how strange it was that Rory wanted to keep it on the QT that Connie worked for her. I’m sure the entertainment shows would have run something showing her mourning for her former companion. Couple that with the weird thing that happened to Connie, and those shows would really have eaten it up. Knowing that Rory is always looking for media coverage, it seems like it would have provided the perfect chance to grab the spotlight and promote the crochet show.”
“You sound pretty worked up for someone who isn’t investigating,” Dinah said.
“Maybe I don’t want to know if Rory is involved anyway. Mrs. Shedd would have a heart attack if the host of the show got arrested and everything got put on hold.”
“Good point,” Dinah said.
* * *
The day of the taping, I understood how Dinah felt about Cassandra taking over her house and making her feel like an outsider. The yarn department was no longer my domain. The crew had come in before the bookstore was open and rearranged the table and chairs. Lights with screens to reflect them had been added. Rory’s chair had her name on it, and it had been placed in CeeCee’s usual spot and our leader had been moved to the other end.
Hooks Can Be Deceiving Page 22
